About Verastem

Board of Directors

Michael Kauffman, M.D., Ph.D., Lead Director

Dr. Michael Kauffman is the cofounding CEO of Karyopharm Therapeutics. Previously, he was the Chief Medical Officer of Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc., where he was a key leader in the development of Kyprolis® (carfilzomib), a novel proteasome inhibitor approved in refractory myeloma. Dr. Kauffman was Chairman of Proteolix (now Onyx) prior to becoming CMO and is past President and Chief Executive Officer of EPIX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (previously Predix Pharmaceuticals, Inc.). He played a key role in the Velcade® Development Program at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and held a number of senior positions at Millennium Predictive Medicine and Biogen. Dr. Kauffman received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins Medical School and is board certified in internal medicine.

Timothy Barberich

Mr. Barberich founded Sepracor, Inc. a publicly-traded, fully integrated research pharmaceutical company, in 1984 and served as CEO and Chairman for more than 20 years. Under his leadership at Sepracor, revenues grew to more than a billion dollars as the company partnered and commercialized a number of successful products, including Allegra®, Clarinex®, Lunesta® and Xopenex®. In 2009, Sepracor, now known as Sunovion, was acquired by Dainippon Sumitomo to form one of the largest Japanese-based global pharmaceutical companies. Prior to founding Sepracor, Mr. Barberich spent 10 years as a senior executive at Millipore Corporation, a major supplier of research tools to the life sciences industry. He also served on the Board of Trustees of Boston Medical Center and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers' Association. Mr. Barberich is a graduate of Kings College and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry.

Robert Forrester, LL.B., President/Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Forrester has 14 years of experience as the CEO, COO or CFO of both private and public life science companies with Forma Therapeutics, CombinatoRx (NASDAQ: CRXX, now ZLCS) and Coley (NASDAQ: COLY, acquired by Pfizer). Robert was a managing director of the Proprietary Investment Group at MeesPierson, part of the Fortis Group, investing in life science companies. Prior to MeesPierson, Robert worked for the investment banks, BZW (now Barclays Capital) and UBS, in the corporate finance groups undertaking M&A, and public and private finance transactions. Robert started his career as lawyer with Clifford Chance in London and Singapore. Robert has completed over $12 billion of transactions and holds a LL.B. from Bristol University.

Alison Lawton

Ms. Lawton has more than 30 years of global pharmaceutical and biotechnology experience. Recently, Ms. Lawton served as the Chief Operating Officer of OvaScience. Prior to that, she was at Genzyme for 21 years where she held several senior roles including Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Biosurgery Business and Senior Vice President of Global Market Access, and led global functional organizations including Regulatory Affairs and Corporate Quality Systems, Policy Programs, Health Outcomes and Strategic Pricing, Patient Safety and Risk Management and BMRA Process Excellence and Training. Earlier in her career, Ms. Lawton spent 8 years in the UK at Parke-Davis. Ms. Lawton currently serves on the Board of Directors of CoLucid Pharmaceuticals and serves as a consultant to Aura Biosciences and X4 Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Lawton received her BSc in Pharmacology at Kings College in London.

Louise Phanstiel

S. Louise Phanstiel has held several executive positions at WellPoint, Inc., including: President, Specialty Products; Senior Vice President, Chief of Staff and Corporate Planning; and Senior Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer and Controller and CFO of all of WellPoint subsidiaries, including Blue Cross of California. Prior to WellPoint, Ms. Phanstiel was a Partner, Los Angeles Cluster Insurance Leader at Coopers & Lybrand, LLP. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Myriad Genetics and Cedar Sinai Health System. Ms. Phanstiel received her BA in accounting from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, CA.

Eric Rowinsky, M.D.

Dr. Eric Rowinsky's professional focus has been on the clinical and registrational strategies of anticancer therapeutics. Currently, Dr. Rowinsky serves as an Executive Director and President at RGenix Inc., a life sciences company focused on discovering new cancer targets using a novel microRNA platform licensed. He is also the Chief Scientific Officer of Clearpath Development Co., which rapidly advances development stage therapeutic assets to pre-defined human Proof-of-Concept milestones. Prior to serving in these capacities, he was the Head of Research and Development, Chief Medical Officer, and Executive Vice President of Stemline Therapeutics (2010-2015). In 2010, Dr. Rowinsky co-founded Primrose Therapeutics and became its Chief Executive Officer until it was acquired in 2011. From 2005 to 2010, he served as the Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Clinical Development and Regulatory Affairs of ImClone Systems Incorporated, a life sciences company focused on monoclonal antibodies, which was acquired by Eli Lilly. Previous to that, Dr. Rowinsky held several positions at the Cancer Therapy and Research Center's Institute of Drug Development, including Director of the Institute and SBC Endowed Chair for Early Drug Development. Prior to that, he served as Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and as Associate Professor of Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Rowinsky is a member of the board of directors of Biogen, Navidea, and Fortress Biosciences, all public life sciences companies, and has served on the board of directors of BIND Therapeutics, a life-science company acquired by Pfizer. He played an integral role in the development and execution of clinical development and registrational strategies resulting in the approval of a wide array of classical cytotoxics, monoclonal antibodies, and targeted therapeutics world-wide. He has authored more than 310 peer-reviewed manuscripts, serves as an editor of several cancer journals.

Brian Stuglik, R.Ph.

Brian Stuglik is a founding member of Proventus Health Solutions and has over 3 decades of experience in US and International pharmaceutical development, product strategy, and commercialization. Proventus Health Solutions helps biotech companies integrate development and commercial considerations into a unified approach. He most recently served as Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for the Oncology Global Marketing Division at Eli Lilly and Company. Brian was instrumental in developing the Oncology division of Eli Lilly and Company with the launch of GEMZAR and had subsequent success in developing and launching several other products, including ALIMTA, ERBITUX, and CYRAMZA. In addition, Brian has extensive experience in early drug development, new product planning and business development. Brian earned his Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from Purdue University and holds memberships in the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.

Bruce Wendel

Bruce Wendel currently serves as Chief Strategic Officer of Hepalink USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Shenzhen Hepalink Pharmaceutical Company. Prior to Hepalink, Mr. Wendel served as Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Abraxis BioScience, LLC where he oversaw the development and commercialization of Abraxane®. He also led the negotiations that culminated in the acquisition of Abraxis by Celgene in a deal valued at over $2.9 billion. Prior to Abraxis, Mr. Wendel served in business and corporate development roles of increasing responsibility at American Pharmaceutical Partners, IVAX Corporation and Bristol-Myers Squibb. He began his 14 years with Bristol-Myers Squibb as in-house counsel before shifting to global business and corporate development. He currently serves as a director of ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. Mr. Wendel earned a juris doctorate degree from Georgetown University Law School, and a B.S. from Cornell University.